Thanksgiving

Abraham Lincoln is my favorite American President. Never mind that my daughter shares his birthday, or that my mother's family tree reveals were are descendants of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. And, never mind that he is known as the president who abolished slavery.

To me, Abraham Lincoln was our nation's greatest president not because of the great things he accomplished while in office, but because of his unwavering faith and Christian values. Abraham possessed CHARACTER. He was noble, though a simple country boy. He was extremely intelligent, though largely self-educated. Though remembered for his successes as our 16th President, in his earlier pursuits, he was considered a failure. (I can relate to him!) He was an average man who chose to become above average.

I love to read his speeches, addresses and quotes. They are not extremely eloquent, flowery or fluffed. His choice of words and constructed ideas reflect the man that he was--simple, truthful, thoughtful, and powerful. His most famous address, of course, is his Gettysburg address..."Four score and seven years ago..."

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation speech is lesser known, though in my opinion, is his best. Here are his words when declaring that the last Thursday of November should be set aside as a National Day of Thanksgiving:

"It is the duty of nations as well as people to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scripture and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord! We have been the recipients of the choicest of bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens."

How true his words apply to us today!

Thanksgiving has not only become the "forgotten holiday" but we as a nation have lost the true meaning AND to whom we give should give thanks.

Thank you, Abraham Lincoln, for reminding us.